Australian golf great Peter Thomson dies

NASSAU, Bahamas – With players making moves all around him, 36-hole leader Patrick Reed was spinning his wheels with 10 straight pars in the third round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club. Then things got worse. Reed hit into a bad lie in an unraked portion of the waste area at the par-5 11th hole, and grounded his club with a sand wedge, which is legal. But in taking a few practice swings, he brushed the sand away from behind the ball, seeming to improve his lie as NBC Golf Channel’s cameras captured and replayed the entire sequence. “He not only did it once,â€� Dan Hicks said from the broadcast booth, “he did it twice.â€� Related: Leaderboard “That is a way better lie than he had,â€� Paul Azinger added. All that was left was for Rules officials to review the footage and assess a penalty, or not. Reed birdied three of the final five holes to salvage an even-par 72 before being told he would in fact be penalized. With two strokes added to his score, it became a 74 as he went from 12 under and a shot off the lead to 10 under and three back going into Saturday’s final round.  After being shown the tape, Reed called it something “I didn’t intentionally do.â€� He said it took four or five minutes to review the incident with Rules officials. He was ultimately penalized for improving the line of play. “You cannot remove or press down loose soil or sand, that’s the bottom line,â€� said PGA TOUR Vice President of Rules and Competitions Slugger White.  Reed took the news well, White said. “Intent would not matter here,â€� he added. “After seeing the video,” Reed said, “it’s a two-stroke penalty. I accept that.”

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Here are nine tidbits from the opening round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road.  Be looking for the Emergency 9 shortly after the close of play of each round of the tournament. Breaking: Wind The trade winds were up and blowing today but 21 of 34 players still broke par on Kapalua’s Plantation Course. If the winds continue to blow as forecast, the field should separate as the week continues. One man that hopes this forecast continues is Marc Leishman. The Aussie has proven throughout his career that his piercing ball flight isn’t bothered much by the breeze. His 67 (-6) included eight birdies, the most on Thursday, and was the best of the day by a shot. Stalking the lead Brian Harman breezed home with a bogey-free 68 to tie second with Jhonattan Vegas. Harman’s only appearance in 2015 saw him close with 65, suggesting he had figured something out on The Plantation Course. Vegas is making his third trip and this was his first round in the 60’s. Hanging 10 It’s hardly a surprise that Dustin Johnson is off to a decent start (T4) as he’s never finished outside the top 10 in his last six starts at Kapalua. The big hitter won the weather-shortened event here in 2013 and has no problem tackling any course regardless of weather. His forte is ball-striking yet he hit only eight fairways and was 26th of 34 in proximity to the hole. Imagine if he starts striping it again! Seeing is believing Si Woo Kim shot 69 and led the field in SG: Tee-to-Green. That’s a pretty good stat to follow as I pointed out in Tuesday’s Confidence Factor. The last three winners all led the field in this category. The last three winners also have all been 25 or younger and won in their second try. Kim is 22 and played here last year for the first time. #Trending. Can Play After taking almost three years off, Patrick Cantlay returned to action in 2017 and didn’t miss a cut in 14 events. The 14th and final event of 2017 saw him lift his first trophy at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. Gamers afraid he’s been too lightly raced might have to reconsider. He’s one of 14 this week playing for the first time in Maui but figured it out quickly. He bogeyed two of his first four holes but birdied four of the next five to turn in 34 (-2). He added eight pars and a closing birdie to wind up with 70, the lowest score of those 14 newbies. Doubting Thomas Not yet! He was the most picked player in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO with a whopping 70 percent of gamers loading up on the defending champ. Through 13 holes, he was one-over and treading water. He turned on the class by circling birdies on three of his last five holes to jump to T12 (-2) and just four shots out of first. Whew, said everybody! What’s Cook-in? Austin Cook, the winner in the final event of 2017 at The RSM Classic, saw both sides of The Plantation Course. He went out in bogey-free 32 that included four birdies. He made one par on the back nine and shot 42. He ended up with six birdies on the card and taste of the highs and lows of paradise. Brooks is still here After wiping out the field in Japan by nine shots to win the Dunlop Phoenix to back up his T2 at WGC-HSBC Champions, Koepka headed back to the States with a bit of a wrist issue. He teed it up in the 18-man Hero World Challenge field in the Bahamas and finished last. His first event of 2018 saw him square three bogeys and a double in his first four holes and he’s currently last again. He’s the sixth-most selected player in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO this week so adjust accordingly! Wipe out? Playing with his buddy Thomas, Jordan Spieth threw up his worst score in 13 rounds at The Plantation Course with 75. It’s his first round at par or worse during that streak. With the Texan finding himself on 48% of rosters in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO this week it’s not time to abandon ship just yet. Spieth is one of the best putters on the planet yet checked in 33rd of 34 in SG: Putting. He also makes birdies for fun on this course, 74 in his previous 216 holes, but carded only two in round one. I’m going to suggest those two categories improve DRAMATICALLY tomorrow. He stays in my lineup.

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SAN DIEGO – They say the appendix is a useless body part but Talor Gooch wondered if his mojo went with his into the medical waste bin after it was removed last season. But any sense of that notion is gone now as he backed up his fourth-place finish at the Desert Classic with an impressive tie for third at the Farmers Insurance Open. It has rocketed the 27-year-old to a career high 27th in the FedExCup and given him every opportunity to make his first FedExCup Playoffs. In his rookie PGA TOUR season in 2017-18 the Oklahoma native was by no means playing amazing but still found himself inside the top 125 on the FedExCup list heading into summer. While he had failed to post a top 10 he had started to grow in confidence, particularly after a T13 at the Wells Fargo Championship. And then the appendix had to come out. “Up to that point I was playing decent and I think I made one cut after that,â€� Gooch said. “That kind of threw me off a little bit.â€� He decided against taking a minor medical exemption and instead tried to fight his way through. But it was apparent he came back a little early and the results dropped. His poor finish meant he missed the FedExCup Playoffs but did manage to stay inside the top 150 to gain conditional status this season. Starts from this position are hard to come by. Gooch had to Monday qualify into the Sony Open in Hawaii where he missed the cut only because he hit the wrong ball and was penalized. Rather than dwell on a potentially very costly mistake he surged his way up the leaderboard at the Desert Classic and booked a ticket via his finish to Torrey Pines. Now he’s booked another start next week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. “Last week was the first time I was in contention and I kind of came through the final round and that obviously gave me a lot of confidence,â€� he said. “Never having done it before, now kind of doing it … I know I can do it now. It feels good. “There’s no doubt that the physical parts have been there the last couple weeks and then it’s just a matter of getting out of your own way. I’ve figured out how to do that the last couple weeks and hopefully we can keep doing it.â€� The goals have certainly lifted now. Forget top-10s, he’s now thinking wins. He’s not a complete stranger to success having won the 2017 News Sentinel Open on the Web.com Tour. A win on the PGA TOUR would take away all the uncertainty of when starts are coming his way. “I think the results would indicate I’m closer to winning,â€� Gooch said. “It’s a funny game as far as winning. People kind of got numb to how hard it is to win out here because of Tiger over the last couple decades. “You have to have things go right, you have to be there in that position a lot as well … If I can get that first one out of the way, then hopefully they start tumbling after that.â€�

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